Leadership in English Language Teaching and Learning: A Systematic Review of the Past Decade

Authors

  • Yuqian Chen

    Faculty of Education, The National University of Malaysia, Bangi 43650, Malaysia
  • Siqi Wang

    Faculty of Education, The National University of Malaysia, Bangi 43650, Malaysia
  • Xiaofeng Hu

    Graduate School of Business, The National University of Malaysia, Bangi 43650, Malaysia
  • Shadanguli Maowulan

    Graduate School of Business, The National University of Malaysia, Bangi 43650, Malaysia
  • Yutong Jiang

    Faculty of Education, The National University of Malaysia, Bangi 43650, Malaysia

     

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i12.11767
Received: 22 August 2025 | Revised: 23 September 2025 | Accepted: 10 October 2025 | Published Online: 7 November 2025

Abstract

Leadership in English language teaching and learning is often discussed but seldom synthesized as a distinct focus; the evidence remains fragmented and indirect. This systematic review integrates empirical studies published from 2014 to 2024, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Searches in Web of Science and Scopus, screening, and independent expert checks yielded 26 studies for thematic analysis addressing three questions: (1) the types of leadership investigated and conceptualized; (2) the characteristics, processes, and impacts of teacher- and student-initiated leadership; and (3) the methodological, theoretical, and contextual forces shaping the field. Findings show that leadership is treated as a practice rather than a position, spanning principal and department leadership; distributed leadership that centers on English for speakers of other languages; teacher leadership (pedagogical and relational); supervisory leadership; interactional leadership enacted in classroom discourse; shared or collective leadership in project-based and professional-learning settings; and student or peer leadership. Teacher leadership blends a relational stance with deliberate task and method design, often shifting toward facilitation in technology-mediated courses and linking to participation, perceived learning, achievement, and equity. Student leadership is emergent, role-fluid, and task-bound, predicting participation and dividing functions across offline idea generation and online evidence synthesis and revision. Qualitative case studies, interviews, and conversation analysis predominate, complemented by survey-based modeling and emerging longitudinal and ethnographic designs; transformational, instructional, distributed, communities of-practice, concept-based, and shared-leadership perspectives frame the inquiry. Implications include strengthening department-level coordination and whole-school provision for multilingual learners, preparing teachers for both relational work and design/facilitation (especially online), and structuring student leadership via interdependent tasks, rotating roles, and explicit discourse norms.

Highlights

  • Leadership in English language teaching is understood as practice rather than position, spanning teacher, student, supervisory, and shared forms.
  • Teacher leadership blends relational support with pedagogical design, while student leadership is role-fluid, task-bound, and strongly predicts participation.
  • Research has expanded methodologically and theoretically, with increasing attention to distributed, interactional, and context-sensitive leadership in English language teaching.

Keywords:

Foreign Language Teaching; Foreign Language Learning; Leadership; Systematic Review

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How to Cite

Chen, Y., Wang, S., Hu, X., Maowulan, S., & Jiang, Y. (2025). Leadership in English Language Teaching and Learning: A Systematic Review of the Past Decade. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(12), 516–532. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i12.11767

Issue

Vol. 7 , Iss. 12 (December 2025): In progress

Article Type

Review

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Copyright © 2025 Yuqian Chen, Siqi Wang, Xiaofeng Hu, Shadanguli Maowulan, Yutong Jiang

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This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.